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Senator Yulee 



OF FLORIDA 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



C. WiCKLIFFE YULEE 





REPRINTED FROM 



Florida Historical Magazine 






Senator 
David L. Yulee 



• 

By C. Wickliffe Yulee 



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SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

By C. WICKLIFFE YULEE 



The adage that : no man is a hero to his valet, may- 
be coupled with one that : every man is a hero to his 
child; which fact the writer promises to bear ever in 
mind, endeavoring to anticipate the modifications of those 
candid friends whose friendship is never so demonstra- 
tive as when clipping one's wings. But it is a matter of 
some regret that a person, who feels compelled thus to 
issue a self-denying ordinance, should have been selected 
to write, for the Florida Historical Society, the biogra- 
phy of Senator Yulee ; since any historical narrative must 
have a strong element of hero-worship in order to make 
a substantial picture for the general reader. 

David Levy Yulee was born in the year 1810 on the 
island of St. Thomas, W. I., which being at that time a 
British possession, made him by birth a British subject, 
and his earliest recollection of life was, when. at the age 
of five, upon the transfer of the island to Denmark, he 
saw the English flag hauled down. Evidently the por- 
tentous significance with which this was regarded by the" 
inhabitants, created such an atmosphere of awe as to 
impress the event upon his childish memory, where it 
stood, in isolated importance, the only thing he could 
recall within that period which ended with his ninth 
year. 

His grandfather had been, although racially Portu- 
guese, a high official in the Emperor of Morocco's court, 
and as such had been given the rank of prince. Upon 
the death of the Emperor, whose side he had espoused 
against the intriguing heir, he was obliged to fly, at a 



4 SENATOR DAVID L YULEE 

moment's notice, to England, taking with him his wife, 
an English Jewess, and their infant son. The last named, 
upon maturity, was obliged to go into trade, and his 
mother, who had exaggerated ideas as to the importance 
of the princely title, insisted upon his dropping the name 
of Yulee, temporarily, and the adoption of Levy, that of 
her own father. This name he retained to the day of his 
death, although, long before, he had acquired an inde- 
pendent fortune in the lumber business in St. Thomas. 
He approved, however, of the resumption of that of 
Yulee by his son — the subject of this sketch — and for 
convenience it will be the one used throughout. 

There are two other incidents of Senator Yulee's 
childhood which must be recorded, because of the mark 
they left ; the one upon his physical, the other upon his 
psychological being. 

Having been given an apple by some one — if a woman, 
the fall of Adam might be traced, pari passu — he climbed 
upon one of the stone gate-pillars of his father's residence, 
in order to enjoy himself, with tranquility, in "splendid 
isolation." A passing practical joker threatening to seize 
the fruit, he started back, fell, and as a result, bore for 
the remainder of his life, upon the center of his forehead, 
a deep blue scar, which, curiously enough, formed the 
letter Y with perfect distinctness. 

The second occurrence took place when, at the age 
of nine, in order to attend school at Norfolk, Virginia, 
he had sailed from St. Thomas, never to return. The 
ship lay becalmed, and the lad was watching with great 
interest the sailors enjoying a sea bath. Suddenly one of 
these, approaching from behind, seized him, and dived 
deep into the bottomless water. Anyone who has ever 
been in a position to realize with Clarence 

"***What pain it was to drown! 

What dreadful noise of water in mine ears! 

What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!" 

can well imagine the terrifying impression, made by 
such an unwonted experience upon a child, whose mis- 
givings had been already excited by seeing all vestige 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 5 

of land sink mysteriously below the horizon. While, 
in after life, he frequently went upon coasting steamers 
between Southern ports, his aversion to being out of sight 
of land was so great as, not only to prevent all travel 
abroad for pleasure, but also to induce his refusal, when 
offered the choice of representing this country at any 
one of-4k« three most attractive European courts. 

The school in which young Yulee now found himself, 
was one kept by an English clergyman, a friend of his 
father's, nearly all the other scholars belonging to the 
old Virginia families, whose places lined the banks of the 
river James. The friendships he formed here lasted, 
without exception, all his life, and were, Southern fash- 
ion, inherited by the succeeding generation, as the writer 
was glad to find, when he entered the University of Vir- 
ginia. Fortunate, too, was the school in its master, who, 
while holding the affections of his pupils, bent his chief 
energies toward forming their characters. The present 
master of Harrow has well said: "However we may fail 
in teaching our pupils the classics or mathematics, we 
hope that we do teach them to 'play the game.' " Truly, 
is not a fine scorn for success, by unfair methods, worth 
all the hexameters and integral calculus in the world? 

Some six years later, his stay at this school, and that 
of his elder brother at Harvard College, was suddenly 
terminated by a letter from their father, announcing that 
he would no longer contribute to their support, except 
as he would to "any other of God's creatures." He had 
worked himself into this condition of religious socialism 
by long pondering upon the failure of all religions to 
supply some simple rule of action — to be used by the 
learned or unlearned — instead of a series of varying dog- 
mas. 

Educated at an English university, his father a Ma- 
hometan, and his mother a Jewess, his mind, as was indi- 
cated by marginal notes on books, seemed ever reaching 
out for some foundation upon which alike could stand 
the most humane, the most extensive, and the oldest 
of existing religions. The precept by which he finally 
enunciated this universal religion was : "All our actions 



6" SENATOR DAVID I, YULEE 

must be for the love of God only;" which, while theoret- 
ically most sound, led practically to^Tew spasmodic 
ultra examples, but. far oftener, resulted in sophistic self- 
reasoning, through which he did whatever he wished. 

Thus cast adrift, the lad, probably by the advice of 
friends, went to a plantation of his father's in Florida, 
where the overseer felt no hesitation in sheltering and 
feeding him ; while his clothing was supplied out of the 
abundance provided for the slaves. His scholastic edu- 
cation thus abruptly terminated, he found himself equip- 
ped with good elementary knowledge, a little Latin, no 
Greek, and some French of that sturdy British kind 
which pronounced "un garcon," "ong garcong." But he 
had, partly inherited, partly acquired, a great love of 
reading, and, as the only form of sport for which he 
cared was fishing, of which there was little near-by, 
most of his time was given to books. 

As he grew to manhood he frequently visited St. 
Augustine, where to the many charming old Spanish 
families there were added, as residents, those of the mili- 
tary and legal United States officers, as well as a large 
number from the Northern states, attracted by the quaint- 
ness of the ancient city and its salubrious climate. 

Here he soon had a large circle of warm friends, who 
gave him that sympathy and, in some cases, guidance 
which he should have received from his father. It was 
with one of these that he studied law,* and in this pro- 
fession he succe-eded from the first, and would probably, 
had he adhered to it, have attained quite as high rank 
as he did in political life, for which he soon abandoned it. 
His entry into the later arena was, without blare of 
trumpets, simply as the clerk to the Territorial Legisla- 
ture, a hotly contested post, to which he was chosen, not 
so much because of special fitness as because his num- 
erous friends thought he needed it. Thus, at the outset, 
was struck what may be deemed the keynote of his char- 
acter and career, the capacity of binding to himself those 
to whom he gave his friendship by the strongest cords 
of mutual affection. 



♦Governor, and also U. S. Judge Robert R. Ried. 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 7 

While he never spared himself in their cause, they 
were in turn devoted, and the friends of his friends were 
his. As a corrollary, his enemies, though few in number, 
were correspondingly bitter, but, almost without excep- 
tion, undesirable in any different relation. 

The next phase in this career, was when, in 1841 he 
ran as the Democratic candidate for the office of Terri- 
torial Delegate. In this successful canvass he had to 
cover a vast extent, and address himself to a constitu- 
ency which varied from the cultured society of St. 
Augustine and Tallahassee, to gatherings of cow-boys 
and woodsmen, so primitive that once, at a barbecue, he 
won the entire vote of a solid Whig' precinct by a lucky 
bull's-eye shot.' 

Unknown himself, a Delegate from a newly-formed, 
remote and sparsely settled Territory, he appeared in the 
House of Representatives at a time when it contained, 
perhaps, more brilliant debaters than ever before in its 
history ; and he might have remained long without being 
able to command attention, but for a malignant attack 
by some personal enemies. 

These individuals petitioned the House to declare 
him ineligible, on the ground that his father, having re- 
mained a British citizen, he himself remained one, 
although residing for twenty years in Florida. 

The Committee on Elections which consisted of six 
Whigs to three Republicans (Democrats) were inclined 
to report adversely upon him, and, from his constitu- 
tional want of punctuality, he had not been in his place 
when the day for discussing his eligibility was fixed, and 
was not fully prepared. But in moving a postponement 
of the case, he showed : that by the treaty with Spain 
all inhabitants of Florida, at the time of transfer, were 
entitled to United States citizenship, that his father had 
claimed to be a citizen, and the claim had been allowed, 
both by the Attorney-General of the United States and 
by the United States District Court ; and while admitting 
that Congress had the legal right to repudiate the action 
of the Executive and Judicial departments, he asked if 
they had a moral right to do so. 



8 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

Deprecating the bringing of political feeling into such 
matters he said, if the \Vmgs who had a majority on the 
floor as well as in Committee, sought a victim, he stood 
ready; for, "I am a Republican." 

That speech settled the matter, not only of his right 
to a seat, but, also, to be heard, and although in the vari- 
ous debates, in which he presently shared, he was 
opposed by such men as Adams, Filmore, Giddings, 
Everett, Roosevelt, Cushing, etc., they showed plainly 
that this new comer seemed to them worth answering. 

For a beginner, he showed also remarkable knowledge 
of parliamentary law; indeed, the only occasions when 
he showed ignorance of it were when he wished to make 
some remarks which were out of order ; and it was gen- 
erally too late when his opponents awoke to the fact. 

His first speech upon any topic of general importance 
was upon the expediency of annulling the extradition 
clause of the "Ashburton" treaty with England, on ac- 
count of the latter's refusal to return some escaping 
slaves, who had been indicted for theft and murder by 
a Grand Jury of Florida. He showed, by incontestable 
precedents, that the British government, led by abolition- 
ists, were in this action flagrantly violating their own 
laws. 

Thus at once Mr. Yulee indentificd himself with the 
great question of slavery, around which the destinies of 
the United States were to whirl, with augmenting vio- 
lence, for twenty-five years more; and then fling upon the 
Southern States a burden of political and social danger, 
which will harass them far into distant years. 

It should be admitted, that to the present generation, 
ignorant of peculiar circumstances, the preservation oi 
slavery by the Southern States must seem as barbarous 
a survival, in the nineteenth century, as the infliction, by 
England, of the death penalty for forgery of a marriage 
heense ; or as the drowning of witches, in the eighteenth, 
by Massachusetts; or as the present absolute control of 
parents over children, and captain over seamen, may 
seem to pious socialists of the future. 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 9 

The explanation is that after the importation of slaves 
in large quantities, (enforced by England) it could never 
be discussed as a purely moral question, but only as 
merged with that of the opposing economic interests of 
the North and the South. That it was not, in itself, 
palpably wrong may be inferred from the fact that it 
was expressly provided for in Leviticus (25) and Exodus 
(21) : was never forbidden by Christ, and specifically ap- 
proved of by St. Paul ; while it existed under British 
sanction until 1833. 

Moreover, the Puritans, one of the most moral peo- 
ples known to history, practised it, regulated it legisla- 
tively, and their legislature never gave the slaves their 
freedom, but it was gradually obtained by legal decisions, 
based on the Bill of Rights ; a process delayed by the 
ignorance of the beneficiaries, as may be inferred from 
the following advertisement appearing in the Continen- 
tal Journal, March 1781, "Boston : To be sold ** a negro 
wench 17 years old, ** has no notion of Freedom, ** not 
known to have any failing, but being with child, which 
is the only cause of her being sold." 

They placed them apart in their schools, churches 
and cemeteries ; and did the same with all blacks as late 
as 1835 without protest except, by a few individuals." 

Slave ships were fitted out by the Massachusetts 
government, and also by private citizens along the whole 
New England coast ; while in the Federal Convention of 
1787, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut 
voted to extend the time limit for the untaxed importa- 
tion of slaves — Rhode Island and New York not voting. 

These facts do not prove slavery to be right, but that 
the South's principles differed chronologically only, not 
basically, from those of the North ; and the Southerner, 
beside believing the negroes' immunity to malaria made 
their labor essential, had them already in too' great quan- 
tity, to consider them from a purely ethical standpoint. 
Moreover, he honestly thought, with Miss Martineau, a 
hostile critic, that : "the patience of slave owners prob- 
*See Harriet Martineau. 



10 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

ably surpasses the whole Christian world ;" and that the 
deprivation of civic rights was no greater cause for un- 
happiness to blacks than it was to white women and chil- 
dren. 

The Quakers of Pennsylvania, being opposed to any 
use of force, had, from the first, opposed slavery, but 
made no active propaganda until Lundy started at Balti- 
more a paper, in which he was later (1829) joined by 
Garrison, who had previously edited one devoted to tem- 
perance. The latter who, with the zeal of novelty, 
favored the overthrow of slavery, "if not by peaceful 
means, then by blood," soon parted with the more gentle 
Quaker and, alone, started upon what long seemed an 
heroically hopeless crusade. Refused every hall or 
church, he was finally indebted to a body of infidels, for 
an opportunity of speaking in Boston, where later (1835) 
he was dragged through the streets, by a "mob of gentle- 
men of property and standing." Recruits came to him 
slowly, and his cause might long have languished, had 
not its principals been needed to give cohesion to a far 
mightier impulse. 

The germ of the abolition movement may be found 
in a law of Connecticut passed in 1774. This -State which 
had most stringent laws governing slaves, and did not 
free them until 1844, in the year first named passed a 
law prohibiting the importation of slaves because it was 
thought "injurious to the poor" and "inconvenient." We 
shall see how the industrial war, which started here, took 
the battle cry of a few zealous philanthropists, and wrote 
the history of a continent. 

The hardy and industrious men who, to better their 
fortunes, had left their eastern homes, traversed the dif- 
ficult passes of the Alleghanies, and settled in that part of 
Virginia's huge gift to the Union, now known as ( )hio, 
viewed with jeolousy the possible competition of slave 
labor, which was rapidly occupying the country south 
of the Ohio. So in 1784 they fought the first battle for 
free labor by asking Congress to forbid slavery in all 
United Slates Territory, although the great hulk of it 
had been gfiven bv Southern States. This law was de- 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 11 

feated, but in 1787 another battle was fought and slav- 
ery was driven from all that vast region lying north of 
the Ohio River, or latitude 38 degrees 27 minutes. 

The next conflict, occuring in 1820, was over new 
territory — the Louisiana purchase— and when peace was 
concluded, free labor had advanced one hundred and fifty 
miles, driving the slaves south of parallel of latitude 36 
deg. 30 rriin. ; which if prolonged to the Pacific, gave to 
the victorious white more than two-thirds of all new 
territory. Against this surrender, thirty-seven Southern 
members of Congress protested to the last. 

The new treaty did not endure so long as the old, and 
those few Southerners who thought partial concessions 
would stop the army of northern expansion, saw their 
error in 1850. At first the objection of the Northerners 
had been to the slave rather than slavery, but, in exclud- 
ing the former, they were obliged to denounce the latter 
and eventually felt they were waging a holy war. They 
had seen Texas given over to slave labor, protected by 
an imaginary line of latitude, and, now that the rich 
mines of New Mexico and southern California were the 
prize, they leaped the feeble barrier and, by the Wilmot 
Proviso, demanded, amid sounding blasts from the 
legislatures of fifteen Northern States, that all terri- 
tory, then or in the future, should be surrendered to free 
labor. Penned in by a foe vastly superior in numbers 
and resources, with its back to the ocean, the South in 
desperation reached its hand toward a weapon, forged by 
a Northern state in the Federal Convention — Secession. 

Whence this feeling of desperation? The answer can 
be found in a letter from Mr. Yulee (now a Senator*) to 
Mr. Calhoun, July 1849: "We must have security and 
fireside peace." He saw that, if the slave states were 
not allowed to expand, it meant not only complete poli- 
tical paralysis, but what was far worse, their africaniza- 
tion. The greater fertility of the negroes, and the reluct- 
ance of white immigrants to compete with slaves, made 
this inevitable ; and the non-slave states would gradually 
repeal all national laws protecting the South from in- 

*He took his seat in the Senate Dec. 1, 1845. 



12 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

cendiary instigation, and eventually must, in common 
consistency, change the constitution, give the slaves their 
freedom and electoral dominion over the whites. 

So he entered the contest ardently and, to the Wilmot 
Proviso, answered by a resolution in the Senate 14 
February, 1848, that the territories belonged equally to 
the citizens of all the states and that therefore any citi- 
zen might take into them his slave property; a doctrine 
confirmed some ten years later by the Supreme Court, 
in the famous Dred Scott decision. And he fought, to 
the last, against the capture, by free labor, of Southern 
California, which dismantled the Missouri Compromise 
of the arms intended to protect the South. 

In the same letter to Mr. Calhoun, after suggesting, 
among various plans of action, one for a convention of all 
of the states, Mr. Yulee said that if an amendment to 
the Constitution providing the South against aggression, 
were not adopted he thought it "the best policy to take 
steps at once for separation." If Secession was ever 
wise, that was the time ; when passions were not so gen- 
erally inflamed, and the relative strength not so dis- 
proportionate as 1860; besides there were in the South- 
ern States three fourths of the veterans of the Mexican 
war, as a sedative upon a coercive spirit. 

If his political convictions were sectional. Senator 
Yulee's personal feelings were not ; for no Southerners 
mingled more generally in Washington society than his 
wife and himself. He had married in 1846* a daughter 
of ex-Governor Wickliffe of Kentucky, a member of 
Tyler's Cabinet. She was called "The Wickliffe Madon- 
na," according to Mrs. Clay's memoirs, on account of her 
goodness and beauty. In corroboration of the latter 
point, the writer may be pardoned for mentioning that a 
New York gentleman told him he was once listening to 
an important speech in the Senate, when, suddenly, a 
rapidly wafted whisper turned the eyes, and attention, 
of the dense throng toward a beautiful woman, who had 



*It was just before In-- marriage that lie resumed the 
name of Yulee. 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 13 

just entered the Cabinet Gallery. Upon inquiry he was 
informed that she was the wife of Senator Yulee. 

Shortly after their marriage they had travelled 
through some of the Northern states, being everywhere 
received most cordially. They visited Governor Win- 
throp in his beautiful home near Boston, where they 
were entertained with that warm courtesy, which does so 
much to make the whole world kin. In Washington, 
therefore, they never encountered or cherished those feel- 
ings of sectional hostility which so often estranged others. 

During the next ten years, a large part of Senator 
Yulee's time was given to that valuable work which is 
called routine, because there is nothing spectacular 
about it. 

As Chairman of the Naval Committee, which he be- 
came the year after his entry into the Senate, he labored 
ceaselessly, being opposed in almost every projected im- 
provement. 

Although Florida furnished the live oak for wooden 
ships, he urged, with final success, the building of iron 
ones, as being more durable, both in and out of commis- 
sion ; and also favored the building of some by private 
contract. It was instanced that a particular wooden ship, 
within three years after completion, had received $75,000 
more in repairs than its whole original cost. 

The annual attempts to abolish flogging in the navy 
he strongly resisted, on the ground that the only sub- 
stitute was imprisonment, which weakened the ship's 
efficiency and threw more work on the more worthy men. 
On this account, the seamen themselves had almost 
unanimously petitioned to have it retained. The opposi- 
tion was generally led by Hale of New Hampshire and 
other abolitionists, who thus showed that they did not 
limit their humanitarian sympathies to the negro. 

But it was a somewhat morbid declaration of Hale's 
that he would be willing to wipe out the whole glorious 
record of our navy, if he could at the same time expunge 
that of its flogging. Such a feeling could not be shared 
by any man from the South, of which Harriet Martineau 
wrote: "What can be expected of little boys brought up 
to consider physical courage the highest attribute of 



14 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

manhood?'" So it came as a surprise to Southerners when 
later, these Yankees, driven by the lash of duty, stormed 
the heights of Lookout Mountain. 

Obstructed in the same quarter, he succeeded in pass- 
ing a bill, which had been delayed more than forty years: 
that providing- bounty for Decatur and his seventy-nine 
men who, under the guns of shore batteries, sword in 
hand, boarded and destroyed a frigate manned by a thou- 
sand Tripolitans. 

To his explanation and assurance was due, also, the 
bill authorizing the Grinnell expedition in search of Sir 
John Franklin. 

Later, as head of the Committee on Post Offices and 
Post Roads, he conducted its measures with rare patience 
and judgment, being always equipped with a thorough 
knowledge of the subject. Bending all his energies to- 
ward securing a weekly mail to Europe, he was the first 
to propose, in furtherance, payment by sea postage alone, 
instead of subsidy; and subsequently he urged cheap 
ocean postage, in the interest of foreign immigrants. 
When it was a question of improving the postal service, 
he often voted alone with the Northern Senators. 

Whatever he undertook he gave himself up to with, 
as Floyd — Buchanan's Secretary of War — wrote of him : 
"an energy and zeal which commanded usual success," 
and, as to his thoroughness, Webster once complained 
that "the Senator from Florida had not read the Act with 
his usual diligence and acuteness." Upon another occa- 
sion a Senator seeing a high pile of books and papers 
upon his desk said: "I move, Mr. President, that we 
save time by giving the Senator from Florida whatever 
he wants — we know he is going to get it." 

Whether it was to save a thoughtless midshipman 
from being shot, in time of peace, for technical mutiny 
or to restore a wrongfully discharged paymaster, he 
worked night ami day investigating, arguing and plead- 
ing until the wrong was righted. As a result, hundreds 
oi people, personally unknown to him, held him in grate- 
mi affection; which may account for the following inci- 
dent — otherwise an impenetrable mystery. 



SENATOR D A V ID L. YULEE 15 

Traveling upon one of the lake steamers, which 
touched at Toronto, he saw it moving off, as he ap- 
proached the wharf, after wandering through the town. 
Excitedly he commenced to run, waving his hat, and 
calling loudly, amid the derisive shouts and laughter of 
the assembled crowd, which sank into dumb and foolish 
amazement, as the boat, making a graceful curve, 
returned, picked him up, and resumed its way. Seeking 
the Captain, as soon as possible, Senator Yulee thanked 
him, to which he replied : "There are only two men in 
the world I would turn my boat back for — one is the 
President of the United States, and you are the other." 
lust as he was about to explain, one of the crew gave 
him some message, and he left, promising to resume 
later; but in the evening he was taken ill and died during 
the night. 

Although unyielding upon the slavery question and 
that of States Rights, Senator Yulee, upon other mat- 
ters was, by no means a bitter partisan. Upon one oc- 
casion, when a correspondent named Ritchie had made a 
libelous attack upon the motives of certain Whig Sena- 
tors, he moved his exclusion from the Senate galleries. 
In this he was supported by Senator Calhoun, whereupon 
Senator Turney accused the Senator from Florida, in 
common with a few other Senators, of joining with the 
great South Carolinian in an apparently disinterested 
legislative course, in order to further his Presidential 
aspirations. This brought a hot rejoinder from the one, 
and an historic speech from the OiIijt; wh'le a few 
authoritative words from Webster, the magnificent, 
sealed the fate of the factious opposition. 

To this natural disposition to look at the other side 
of the shield, were added, as the grea: crisis of 1860 ap- 
proached, other reasons for an increasing belief that se- 
cession might not, after ail, be necessary. Not only did 
his numerous warm friends at the North assure him, con- 
stantly, that a violent abolition programme would never 
be permitted, but he had ilso iornied sanguine hopes for 
an economic development of the South, and especially 
of his own idolized State, which, by inducing white im- 






16 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

migration, would prevent thaic "Africanization" which 
was the great danger. 

While Florida was still mostly a vast wilderness, he 
had drawn up an "Internal Improvement Act" which, 
utilizing United States grants of land, as a basis of credit, 
built an extensive system of railroads through trackless 
forests, where the locomotives' clarion was the first sum- 
mons to the beasts of the field, for a surrender of their 
territory, to those forces of civilization which are now 
in occupation. 

One portion of this system crossed the peninsula from 
the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic,* and it was thought 
that the commerce between Xew York and the Missis- 
sippi Valley would seek this route to avoid the danger 
and delay of a voyage around the capes of Florida. The 
fast steamers supported by this trade would carry fruits 
and vegetables from Florida and Georgia, and their 
growth would draw immigrants from the white market- 
gardeners of the North. In the autumn of 1860, after 
years of repeated failure, and the pledging of his own 
small private fortune, the road was just completed, 
special steamers had been built, contracts for the mail 
between New York and Xew Orleans granted, and at 
the Atlantic terminus, where five years before had been 
the abandoned indigo plantation of the Countess of 
Egmont, was a thriving commercial town. A few months 
passed ; the town was deserted, Northern mail was 
smuggled through military lines, and the steamers, in- 
tended to carry the first fruits of the South, in friendly 
exchange for the harmlessly adulterated biscuit of the 
North, were landing hostile troops./ 

Another reason for hope with -Senator Yulee was his 
confidence that the West would not join with the East in 
aggressive abolition legislation. Because of this, and 
also of personal friendship, he warmly espoused the poli- 
tical leadership of Stephen A. Douglass, and had at the 
convention of '56 effected an agreement with the leaders 
of certain delegations, which would have nominated him, 
but there was an accidental dela'y in making this known, 



*The Florida Railroad, incorporated Jan., 1853. 

I 

MA 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 17 

and Douglass' telegram of withdrawal greeted them as 
they entered the hall. 

Again, when the Charleston Convention of 1860 met, 
he was in favor of Douglass, was averse to the with- 
drawal of the Southern delegations, and advised in a pub- 
lished letter, that Florida should send no delegation to 
Richmond, but stand ready to indorse the action of the 
Baltimore convention — which was the adjourned Charles- 
ton one. This brought him disfavor from his political 
friends. But when Douglass repudiated the right of 
secession, Senator Yulee was "surprised and grieved" 
and could no longer support him. 

Two incidents will well illustrate Senator Yulee's 
frame of mind at this period. 

His elder brother having become an officer of the 
crack "Washington Rifles" remarked to him, that the 
South might soon need troops ; which called forth an 
angry rebuke from the younger, who said it was "non- 
sence" and that the other "ought to know better." 

Then again, after the election of Lincoln, the writer, 
whose childish curiosity had been excited by the an- 
nouncement of two Floridian callers: "Captain Byrd 
and Major Partridge" heard, with the indignation 
natural to the officer of a boys' company, his own father 
counselling "moderation" and "patience" to men whose 
very names already suggested congenital timidity. This 
too' when, a few days before, his mother had a caller 
(Lord Lyons) who drank tea, instead of Madeira or 

whiskey ! 

When Governor Wickliffe, ex-President Tyler and 
other friends came on in advance of the Peace Congress,- 
Senator Yulee was often in earnest conference with them 
at the old National Hotel and elsewhere. 

But the time had come when the words of any man 
or set of men on either side were as futile as those ad- 
dressed by Canute to the rising ocean, and blown back in 
his face by the gathering winds of heaven. 

The peopleof the upper class at the North still re- 
mained tolerant, even friendly toward Southerners, but 
those of the middle— the backbone of any community— 
had become convinced that the hand of the Lord must be 



18 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

raised against the sinful race, and were quite ready to 
be that hand. 

While the Puritan was no longer so austere as in the 
days of Hudibras, and did not "blaspheme custard 
through the nose," making it, on the contrary, when 
moulded into pies, a staple of diet, yet he never could 
feel sympathetic toward the easy going Southerner, 
whom he regarded as "gluttonous and a wine-bibber," 
given over to a love of horses, women and a mediaeval 
code of honor. 

So when he saw the injustice and atrocity, so often 
exhibited in the recapture of slaves, forgetting that it was 
mostly from the cruel masters that slaves were apt to 
flee, and not knowing that the negro-trader, so much in 
evidence, was despised at the South, he set down all 
Southerners as heedlessly inhuman ; which was as un- 
just as if, because of the cruelty of some parent to a 
child, which he could see in any newspaper, he should 
conclude that all parents, except himself, were cruel. 

And the leaders of the abolition movement did not 
conceal these opinions or their intention to punish ; for 
they were men of such clear vision, that, had they been 
present when Christ suggested the casting of stones upon 
the sinful Woman, they would speedily have raised over 
her a lithic pile, which should at the same time be a warn- 
ing to the depraved, and a monument to their own 
rectitude. The South being "a mechant badger," "de- 
fended itself when attacked" and its language was, prob- 
ably, much more violent. 

All this, however was but the tumult of the surface, 
and had little to do with the deep, silent flood of World- 
Justice, which was, inevitably, to submerge the South, 
regardless of what local devastation it wrought, or who 
first built upon the shifting sand. 

Slavery was unjust — wrong — for the good of the 
world and the country, at large, it was destined to perish, 
although the South might suffer grievously. But far 
better that it should do so in a gallant fight of five mil- 
lion against eighteen million whites, bringing to the 
front on both sides those willing to risk their lives for 
the right, than, in a decade, or more, of rancor, incendiary 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 19 

incitement and remodeling of the Constitution for par- 
tisan purposes. 

According to ordinary human lights the South could 
not well have acted differently at this crisis, except that 
some moral advantage would, perhaps, have been gained 
by refraining from the attack on Fort Sumpter. 

Those who said: "Wait in the Union for some overt 
act against your rights," were counseling the question- 
able strategy of Artemus Ward when he "firmly planted 
his nose between the teeth of his adversary." 

"But" they say, "Lincoln was a good man" — so was 
Garrison, so. even was John Brown ; referring to whose 
raid, Beecher said: "That John Baptist work, before 
the last (Lincoln) election, prepared the way and we are 
going forward"— the pages of history are blotted every- 
where with the stern cruelty of good men, in their efforts 
to c-" sh the sin out of those they believe to be sinners. 
Great as was Lincoln's personality and intellect, he 
was not chosen leader on that account, but because he 
was the incarnation of the soul of his party and had first 
enunciated its fundamental creed— that a thing cannot be 
wrong on one side of a surveyor's line and right on the 
other when he said: "I believe this government cannot 
endure permanently half slave and half free." Moreover, 
with his strong sense of justice he saw, equally, that, 
when the slaves were freemen, they could not remain de- 
prived of votes, and he therefore announced the corollary 
of the greater principle: "I embrace with pleasure this 
opportunitv of declaring my disapprobation of that clause 
of the Constitution which denies to a portion of the col- 
ored people the right of suffrage."* 

Such was the goal upon which his far-seeing gaze was 
fixed ; and it must be remembered that, though a man of 
gentle ways, Lincoln, in his psychological and political 
progress took many cautious, but not one backward step. 
Thus the Southern people, if they remained in the 
Union, had the prospect, either of having themselves 
placed, by constitutional methods, in subjection to their 



♦Speech reported in the Illinois State Journal (a leading 
Republican organ) Sept. 16, 1856. 



20 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

former slaves, or that other alternative, so wisely ex- 
pressed by Lincoln in his Cooper Institute Lecture : 
"How much would you gain by forcing the sentiment 
which created it, (The Republican Party) out of the 
peaceful channel of the ballot-box, into some other chan- 
nel? "What would that other channel probably be? 
Would the number of John Browns be lessened or en- 
larged by the operation?" So they overwhelmingly de- 
cided to exercise what they believed to be a constitu- 
tional right, and withdraw from a distracted Union, in 
which the first battle of interstate warfare had already 
been fought at Harper's Ferry. 

Senator Yulee, when he found that the victorious 
Republicans would admit of no fresh guarantees for the 
future, fully approved of the secession, for which Florida 
had assembled a convention ; especially as he thought 
the only hope for a peaceful issue, "as the North is con- 
solidating upon a plan of force," lay "in forming a South- 
ern Confederacy and army" in order "to bring them (the 
Northerners) to a sense of the gravity of the crisis." In 
furtherance of this he advised the taking immediate pos- 
session of all Florida forts and arsenals. This was being 
done all over the seceding states and had a two-fold rea- 
son. An incidental one was that it was feared insur- 
rectionary slaves might get hold of the arms and ammu- 
nition ; as is shown by the reports of Federal officers in 
the United States Official Record. The main reason, of 
course, was that they did not wish to leave such formi- 
dable footholds for possible invaders. This danger had 
been forseen by Elbridge Gerry (of Massachusetts") in 
the Constitutional Convention of '87, who objected to the 
clause, giving the General Government exclusive juris- 
diction over places purchased by it for the erection of 
forts, etc. ; "that the strongholds proposed would be a 
means of aweing the state into an undue obedience to the 
General Government," so on motion of Mr. King (Mass. ) : 
"by the consent, of the Legislature of the state" was 
added.* 



''Madison Papers. Elliot. 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 21 

South Carolina had already sent commissioners to 
Washington saying she would resume, by the law of 
eminent domain, possession of such property, and repay 
the government its expenditures thereon, (although the 
South through the tariff, had paid more than its share of 
the purchasing money). This was refused by Holt, Act- 
ing Secretary of "War, on the ground that absolute juris- 
diction once given could not be revoked. As if Austria, 
which purchased the site of its Embassy at Washington, 
and now exercises Absolute Jurisdiction over it, could 
still do so if diplomatic relations were severed. With 
some reason, too, the Southern States, who had notice of 
the hostile utterances and preparations in certain North- 
ern States, might claim to use their forts, under that 
clause of the Constitution which forbids a State "to en- 
gage in War unless actually invaded or in such immedi- 
ate danger as will not admit of delay." (The emphasis is 
the writer's). This matter was to assume a portentous 
significance as to Senator Yulee, at the close of hostilities. 

The simultaneous action of those states which meant 
to secede was advised by a meeting of their Senators, 
which, although private, was not secret, being discussed 
generally in and out of the lobbies of Congress. Of this 
meeting Senator Yulee wrote to a correspondent that "it 
is thought by remaining here until 4th March we can 
keep the hands of Air. Buchanan tied" as to force bills, 
etc. (They would also put the Republican Senators on 
the horns of a dilemma as to the right of a State to 
secede.) But he neither approved of such action nor 
conformed to it, for after the telegraph announced 
Florida's secession (10 January, '61), he took no part in 
the Senate's proceedings, formally withdrawing from that 
body, as soon as he received official notification from the 
convention. (21st January.) 

Although "in his haste" he had angrily written that 
he should "give the enemy a shot before retiring," when 
the time actually came, his speech was only one of deep 
sorrow that his state must withdraw, being "not willing 
to disturb the peace of her associates by an inflamed and 
protracted struggle within the Union." "The people of 
Florida," said he, "will ever preserve a grateful memory 



22 SENATOR DAVID L YULEE 

of past connection with this Government and a just pride 
in the continued development of American society. They 
will also remember that, although, to their regret, a ma- 
jority of the people of the Stated in the Northern por- 
tion of the Union, have seen their duty lie in a path fatal 
to Southern Society, they have had the sympathies of a 
large arrav of noble spirits, in those States, whose sense 
of justice and whose brave efforts to uphold the right 
have not been less appreciated because unsuccessful. 
Acknowledging, Air. President, with grateful emotions 
my obligations for the many courtesies I have enjoyed in 
my intercourse with the gentlemen of this body, and with 
most cordial good wishes for their personal welfare, I 
retire from their midst, in willing loyalty to the man- 
date of myOtate, with full approval of her act." 

Of this scene Mrs. Clay, an eye witness, writes in her 
Memoirs: "As one by one Senators Yulee, Mallory, Clav, 
and Jefferson Davis rose, the emotion of their brother 
Senators and of us in the galleries increased, women grew 
hysterical and waved their handkerchiefs ** men yvept 
and embraced each other mournfully, *** scarcely a mem- 
ber of that Senatorial body hut yvas pale with the terrible 
significance of the hour." 

His memoranda show that Senator Yulee had in 
view' several different solutions of the country's troubles : 
the most desired being that the North, seeing" the South's 
united front, should give the necessary constitutional 
guarantees and the Union be restored; another yvas that 
the old Union and new Confederacy should form a de- 
fensive and commercial League, in which eventually, the 
West might possibly form a third political entity; and 
still another was that the West should join the South on 
account of their common interest in the Mississippi 
River — never perceiving that this would prove a motive 
for yvar instead of alliance. All these dreams, however, 
were scattered at the cannon's mouth, and there was 
nothing for oneiwho thought his first allegiance due to 
thewtate, to do. but perform his duty as she might bill 
him. 

lie had, months before Lincoln's election, addressed 
a public letter to his political friends announcing his 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 23 

intention to retire from public life and devote himself 
to the development of the State. Accordingly he took 
no part in the new government, although cordially ap- 
proving of it, as its principal officers were warm per- 
sonal friends, and he had besides a high opinion of Presi- 
dent Davis' military training as a qualification for leader- 
ship at such a junction. It was this quality, however, 
which made him refuse, at first. Senator Yulee's request 
for the appointment of a certain Florida civilian to a 
generalship, in explaining which he said, "It is not every 
man who can make a good general," the truth of the 
axiom being proved later by giving the rank desired ; for 
the officer, while brave, was severely criticised for the 
handling of his troops. 

At the beginning of the war. Senator Yulee and his 
family resided at Fernandina on the Atlantic coast, but 
his wife and children were subsequently sent for safety to 
a sugar plantation called Homosassa (Indian — -Little 
Pepper) on a smaller! ver flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. 
Thither he also went, when Fernandina was captured by 
the Federals, who shelled the train in which he was 
escaping and killed a man at his side. 

For nearly two years now his life was the tranquil 
one of a Southern planter^ except for an occasional trip 
to Gainesville, a drive of eighty miles, where were located 
the offices of the "Florida Railroad," of which he was 
president 

It was upon one of these trips that the first of several 
attempts to capture him was made ; one which would 
have been successful but for what his wife regarded as a 
palpable interference of Providence. A small expedition 
from a gunboat led by a native spy, lay in ambush to 
seize him as he passed a certain lonely spot. But they 
were looking for . a large carriage drawn by a pair of 
magnificent Kentucky bays, one of which having been 
taken suddenly ill, a barouche and pair of mules was sub- 
stituted, so that the intended victim was allowed to pass 
unmolested. For some time a couple of companies of 
infantry were, at Senator Yulee's expense, kept on the 
river to s:uard against the destruction of the sugar mill. 



+ Cw 6/6^6 ,^WV 



24 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 



but they were soon withdrawn, leaving nothing to tell 
of a great war, except the news brought by the post, 
which toiled slowly in, twice a week. 

An overseer, a German gardner, and a Scotch ac- 
countant, were the only other whites within twenty miles 
and the Scotchman, dying shortly after the dismissal of 
the German, the family would be often, during the ab- 
sence of the overseer, left entirely alone with the slaves. 
Yet on neither side was this thought extraordinary ; for 
there was complete and affectionate confidence between 
them. Senator Yulee was always solicitous as to the 
happiness of those dependent upon him, and certain ex- 
ceptional practices as to slavery, were in themselves a 
condemnation of it ; for he would never sell a slave ; nor 
buy one, if it separated members of a family ; which rule, 
upon one occasion brought, from the husband of a 
shrewish wife the remonstrance: "Massa, please don't put 
yoself out 'bout dat." Many of them could read, especi- 
allv among those who had come (delightedly) as part 
of his wife's dowery, and although they knew the causes 
of the war, their sympathies seemed entirely with their 
master and mistress. 

When scarlet fever broke out on the plantation, Mrs. 
Yulee had all the healthy children brought down the river 
to her own residence, in one wing of which most were 
lodged, the others going into the house-servants' quar- 
ters. Then, leaving her own children, whom she there- 
after only saw in boats, across intervening water, she 
went to the plantation to help in the nursing; as her 
father and mother had done, before her, in the great 
cholera epidemic of Kentucky. 

Health was restored, the placid life resumed, the 
Yulee children studying under a beloved tutor, whom 
allthe family accompanied, every Sunday, as he was 
jJubooJ^J^yVornc in a five-oared gig, rowed by sturdy men, singing, 
with rythmic swing, quaint negro melodies. There, a 
thousand miles from his Pennsylvania home, this dear 
clergyman preached scholarly sermons to a congregation 
all of whom were reverential, and many of whom remain- 
ed awake. 






SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 25 

At the end of about two years, the whole family went 
off on a visit to Captain Taylor, a "neighbor" some fifty 
miles distant, and were enjoying to the full, a hospitality 
which was famous, when, at daylight one morning two 
of the Homosassa people appeared and told a startling 
tale. 

The servants at the residence, alarmed by the bark- 
ing of an English sheep-dog, named "Sesech," saw com- 
ing through the gloom of the night a large boat rowed 
with muffled oars. Snatching a few belongings, and 
taking a boat from another part of the island, they 
hurried up to the plantation, three miles distant, gave 
the alarm, the cooper — a mighty shot and sage — took 
command, torches flared through the darkness, wonder- 
ing mules and oxen were geared into dozens of sugar- 
cane wagons, bedding, children, cooking utensils and odd 
treasures heaped in confusedly, and, as the dawn came, 
a long line, headed, with bad strategy, by the armed men, 
marched rapidly away from the strangers, known to be 
bearing them freedom, toward a loved and trusted mas- 
ter. When at a safe distance they bivouacked in the open 
pine woods and sent a report of the happenings. 

Upon the second day afterward four cautious scouts, 
perceiving everything to be quiet, proceeded to the empty 
residence, and finding a heavy box similar to the one used 
for silver — but really containing books— they put it, 
and also a demijohn of highly prized Madeira, into their 
boat and started upon their return. A navy launch ap- 
peared suddenly, from a branch river, and, for a time, 
seemed to be overtaking them; but, shouting: "We ain't 
chillun," and unmindful of the bullets, which splintered 
the boat and churned the water about them, they bent 
to their-oars, finally ending the unequal contest by escap- 
ing into a narrow creek. 

The next morning a high column of smoke announced 
the destruction of the house and the continued presence 
of the enemy — for, as of old, over the march of the Lord's 
appointed army, there constantly hovered "a cloud of 
smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night." The fine 
library, collected by Senator Yulee's father, and himself, 
containing some exceedingly rare books, was the only 



26 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

irreparable loss, to be borne, and every one was soon 
fairly comfortable in new quarters on a cotton plantation 
near Archer. 

The writer hopes he may be pardoned for narrating, 
at some length, an incident which he deems so honorable 
to his father; and feels bound in fairness to add a fact 
not so favorable to the system of slavery, which is that 
another planter offered to buy, en bloc, at a high figure 
in cotton, these friends of Senator Yulee, who happened 
to be his slaves. 

''Soon after this affair, a conflict arose between the 
Confederate Government and Senator Yulee, which, 
through, a misunderstanding on his part, led to an 
estrangement between President Davis and himself. The 
local military authorities wished, for general strategic 
purposes, to tear up the iron of the Florida Railroad and 
transfer it to Georgia, which, as President, as well as in 
loyalty to those Northern friends who were the principal 
owners, and for the protection of East Florida, he con- 
tested inch by inch, with all the indefatigable tenacity, 
for which he was noted. The matter was referred to the 
Secretary of War, Seddon,' and the President, both of 
whom, as the records now show, gave every consideration 
to their friend, short of neglect of duty to the country 
as a whole ; but Senator Yulee never knew this ; on the 
contrary, being falsely informed, toward the close of the 
war, that a warrant was out for his arrest, which of 
course must be sanctioned by the President. 

The two had long served in the Senate together, were 
warm personal friends, and each had, confidently, looked 
for the support of the other, in any measure he had 
much at heart. It is rare that great intimacy can exist 
without occasions of friction, and the}- had theirs, but 
the sun did not go down upon them. For instance: 
Senator Davis having one day made, as Secretary oi 
War, under Pierce, some rather emphatic strictures, upon 
a certain policy as to Military Reservations, and Senator 
Yulee having shown some fending about it. he promptly 
wrote, explaining that he had not known the latter was 
interested in the matter, and closed his letter as follows: 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 27 

"You are too near to me by many ties, and your kind- 
ness has been too often shown to permit me to leave you 
for an hour in doubt as to the affectionate regard with 
which I am as ever, 

Your friend, 

Jefferson Davis." 

Upon another occasion he wrote, chaffingly, to Sena- 
tor Yulee, who had, evidently, acted upon misinforma- 
tion: "Those friends of yours who were murdered quite 
entirely, by the removal of the troops from Fort Capron, 
took their death in anticipation, as I find the troops have 
not been removed." 

About one vear before the war a friendly contest took 
place between them with an important bearing upon his- 
torical psychology. 

Col. Joseph E. Johnston's appointment, as Quarter- 
master-General, was being urged by Senator Yulee, 
partlv on account of his own friendship, but much more, 
it is to be feared, by reason of the devoted intimacy be- 
tween his wife and Airs. Johnston, who had been Miss 
McLane of Maryland. On the other hand. Senator 
Davis, a graduate of West Point, distinguished in the 
Mexican War and an ex-Secretary of War, advocated 
the selection of Col. Robert E. Lee, whose military 
reputation was fully equal to that of his class-mate and 
competitor. The choice fell upon Johnston, and thus was 
engendered, toward him, that disinclination, on the part 
of the future Confederate President, which was after- 
wards to have such momentous results. Upon these 
results it would be interesting, though futile, to speculate. 
Unquestionably it hastened the fall of the Confederacy, 
when, in '64, Johnston was replaced, after having, for 
months, held Sherman's greatly superior army down to 
an average advance of one mile a day, and inflicted upon 
it a loss of 50,000 against his own of only 10,000. 

But, as counterbalancing that, we must count the 
fact that, in the beginning of the war, it was this same 
feeling which led to Johnston's being replaced in the 
command of the army of Virginia by Lee, whom Hen- 



28 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

derson, the distinguished English military critic, has de- 
clared to be: "The greatest English-speaking general 
since the days of Marlborough." 

None of these things, had, however, left any mark 
upon the relations of the two Senators, and we must set 
down the persistent and determined action by the Gov- 
ernment, in the railroad matter to a sense of duty and 
necessary dependence upon the advice of subordinates. 
Gossip spread exaggerated reports of the strained rela- 
tions, and finally, in the Spring of '64, some northern 
papers announced that Senator Yulee was in favor of re- 
construction. As an answer to this, the Florida and other 
Southern papers published a letter, written the previous 
autumn, in reply to a request, from citizens of both 
political parties, that he should go to the Confederate 
Congress. His loyal and emphatic approval of support- 
ing the Government, in its trying hours, and declaration 
that there should be no peace, "until the Sovereignty of 
the Confederate States is allowed," settled the matter in 
the minds of Southerners. 

However, on 17th August, '64, the Federal General 
Hatch wrote to headquarters that hearing, from deserters 
"that Mr. Yulee was hostile to Davis and might be in- 
duced to head a movement for reconstruction" he had 
thought an expedition to attempt his capture "worth 
trying." That same day the expedition, of cavalry and 
artillery, having missed capturing Senator Yulee, at 
Gainesville, by scarcely an hour, was completely annihila- 
ted by General Dickinson. 

Of a sanguine nature, Senator Yulee hoped for suc- 
cess even after Hood, unheeding Napoleon's failure in a 
similar manoeuvre, had thrown his army in the rear of 
Sherman, who imitated the march of the allies upon 
Paris, in 1814, by tearing out the heart of Georgia. It 
was about this time, that, in answer to the request of 
the writer, who had seen a little lighting, as a volunteer 
in a cavalry company, he be allowed to join permanently, 
Senator Yulee said: "The time will come, I suppose, 
when 1 must let you go, but," he added sadly, "] hope I 
will still count for enough to get you a better place than 
that." 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 29 

When Grant completed his great sum in arithmetic 
at Appomattox, and the Confederacy vanished into his- 
tory, the Governor of Florida appointed Senator Yulee 
one of a Commission to go on to Washington and confer 
with the President, as to Florida's re-establishment in 
the Union. While at Tallahassee he expressed himself 
both to the Governor and to Gen. McCook, the Com- 
mandant, as being in favor of a frank and loyal accep- 
tance of the results of the war. The Commission, how- 
ever, was not allowed to proceed, but, on the contrary, 
about the middle of May, 1865, Senator Yulee was arrest- 
ed at Gainesville, and sent to Jacksonville. He found in 
command there. Gen. Yodges, who being an officer of 
the regular army, treated him most considerately and al- 
lowed him to go about the city on parole, until counter 
manded from Washington, and ordered to send his pris- 
oner under guard, to Fort Pulaski, near Savannah. 

Several nights before his arrest, there had arrived at 
Cottonwood, Senator Yulee's plantation, a small caval- 
cade, which proved to consist of some officers belonging 
to the escort of the Confederate President, in his 
attempted escape, but who had been diverted, in Georgia, 
with the double purpose of making the party less con- 
spicuous, and puzzling the pursuers. This section in- 
tended to reach the south coast of Florida, and cross over 
in small open boats to Nassau, into British protection — as 
did later Secretary of War Benjamin. They were cor- 
dially welcomed, but were advised by their host to seek 
the nearest Federal command, and give their parole, 
under the generous terms accorded by Generals Grant 
and Sherman. This advice they took, leaving at Cotton- 
wood certain horses and personal effects which were to 
be forwarded, later, to their homes in Louisiana. Amongst 
these were two boxes, which Mrs. Yulee, after her hus- 
band's arrest, learned from an aide to Davis, Col. Wood, 
(also escaping to Nassau) contained private papers and 
effects, belonging to the Confederate President. 

Upon this information she confined the task of secret- 
ing them to the writer, who, delightedly, performed it, 
one faithful companion assisting, by burying them, at 
midnight, in the cow stable, where, a few hours later, no 



30 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

trace of the work could be seen. Being under arrest 
himself. Senator Yulee determined to send his family to 
Gov. Wickliffe in Kentucky, and therefore he directed 
these boxes, when he learned the nature of their con- 
tents, to be sent to a friend, whose well known Union 
sentiments would, it was thought, make their care, until 
forwarded to Louisiana, less difficult. 

A negro coachman having informed the Federal 
authorities of the existence of the boxes, a detachment of 
"Colored Troops" was sent to Cottonwood, commanded 
by an officer named Bryant, who in his report says: * * 
"I met Mrs. Yulee, claimed and received the hospitality 
of the house, and ascertained * * that the trunk and 
chest had been removed. I asked her to state frankly 
where I might find them. After a moment's reflection she 
said they were the private effects of Mr. Davis and she 
had received them that she might deliver them to Airs. 
Davis, who was an esteemed friend. That Air. Yulee 
had given them in charge to Air. Aleader * * to de- 
liver to Air. Williams * * who had no suspicion of 
the nature of the property. :;: I found the property 

in a store-room adjoining the house, not even locked. 
* * I also have to deliver a French musket, a most 
murderous weapon, which I received from Airs. Ytdee, 
as the private property of J. Davis." 

Upon General Vodges' suggestion Senator Yulee 
made a statement as to this matter, in which he said, 
that when he learned the boxes were the property of Mr. 
Davis, he had continued to retain them because Air. Davis 
had been a warm personal friend whose "many noble 
qualities" he admired, and also because there had been 
some estrangement between them, and for him to deliver 
these private effects would have the appearance, both of 
petty ill-nature and an effort to curry favor with his 
capti irs. 

This belief in the antagonism of his former friend 
he carried to his death bed, and it is most pathetic to the 
writer, now, when both are dead, to hnd, in the dry offi- 
cial reports, how baseless the impression was, and inrther 
that among the articles mentioned by the departmental 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 31 

commander, as found in these very boxes, containing 
mostly private reports from high functionaries, were "a 
portrait of Jefferson Davis and wife, one of General Lee, 
and a letter of condolence from D. L. Yulee."* 

At Fort Pulaski the officers, having the discretion not 
to ask for instructions too detailed, treated their prisoners 
most kindly, and when Senator Yulee's family, on their 
way North were allowed to visit him, the children, who 
had already been mystified by seeing "Yankee Generals" 
give up their quarters, on a crowded transport, to a rebel 
lady, were dumbfounded, when they saw their father 
rushing past the sentinel, over the moat-bridge, to meet 
them, instead of being in a dungeon, loaded down with 
chains. 

- Mrs. Yulee did not go to her father's, but to the coun- 
try place of her brother-in-law, Judge Merrick in Mary- 
land, in order to be near Washington, which was now 
the center of her hopes — and fears ; for sinister rumors 
were beginning to circulate. Her father, Governor 
Wickliffe, came on, saw the Attorney-General, who was 
a personal friend, and other influential people saw other 
members of the Cabinet and President Johnson, all only 
to confirm the rumor that a most determined effort was 
being made to have her husband tried by court-martial 
and executed as had been done with the Suratts. 

Among the officials at Washington was one from 
whom Senator Yulee had much right to expect such aid 
as he could give ; one for whom his efforts had obtained 
the Post Master Generalship under Buchanan, and who 
having been the husband of Mrs. Yulee's much loved 
sister, had, with her, before her death, enjoyed, for 
months at a time, the affectionate hospitality which 
Southerners extend to all those who are of their family, 
by blood or marriage — yet it was this man, Judge Advo- 
cate General Holt, who was, with unrelenting ferocity, 
seeking to put him to an ignominious death. 

Upon what ground did he select this one out of a 
score of others to try by court-martial, months after peace 
had been declared? He said it was because he had 



*This had been written a long time previous. 



32 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

documentary proof that Senator Yulee had tried to learn 
what stores and armament were in the Pensacola Forts, 
and also had advised the prompt seizure of those forts, 
by the State. (Which was expected to have seceded 
before the letter reached its recipient, as proved to be the 
case.) Yet the official records show that he had at that 
very time dozens of similar documents in regard to other 
public men. The charge as to asking about armament, 
etc., was peculiarly frivolous, as the demand had been a 
formal one, signed by both Florida Senators, and had 
been answered by Holt himself, as Acting Secretary of 
War, without the slightest intimation that he judged it 
treasonable. 

It was his own nature, a compound of petty virtues 
and crawling vices, which, prompted by diseased vanity, 
sought to bite the hand that had aided him, and shine, in 
artificial light, as a spurious Brutus. He had been de- 
graded, by the noble-minded Lincoln from his cabinet 
place, and put into the one which he now held, where in 
evervthins:, except abilitv, he resembled the notorious 
Fouche of whom, when it was said he had great contempt 
for human nature, Talleyrand remarked : "He has studied 
himself very carefully." 

Unfortunately he had to aid him in exciting passion 
against Senator Yulee, the fact that the latter in a letter, 
speaking of his retirement from the Senate, said he would 
give the "enemy a shot" (which he did not do) "and that 
I am willing to be their masters but not their brothers." 
While the loss of political mastery was of course the 
reason for secession, yet the sweeping expression as to 
brotherhood was not true, and was evidently written in 
a moment when threats of coercion had angered him. 
He signed it "Yours in haste," and to the writer there is 
internal evidence of this hastiness in the palpably faulty 
grammatical construction ; such as he has not found else- 
where, in any of his father's writings. 

Of the Cabinet, Stanton had been Senator Yulee's 
friend and Seward had always been friendly, but now 
the former gave no sign of opposition to his subordinate's 
designs, and the latter was said to be open in hostility; 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 33 

but this is most doubtful. Months passed and even Gov. 
Wickliffe, noted for his iron nerves, was grave with 
apprehension, when one day a high official drew him 
apart and gave him a message from President Johnson : 
"Tell Mrs. Yulee," he said "that not one hair of her hus- 
band's head shall be touched — but for me to do anything 
now in his behalf, while passions remain excited, would 
only injure his cause." 

This assurance calmed the acuteness of anxiety, but 
when a year passed and, of all the prisoners, only the 
Confederate President, Senator Clay, and Senator Yulee 
remained, hope deferred made the heart sick. Then it 
was suggested from Washington that a letter from Gen- 
eral Grant would be of benefit, and General Joseph E. 
Johnston wrote asking him to intervene. 

Wires flashed, and, magically, the prison doors were 
thrown open ; as were the hearts of Senator Yulee and 
his family, for the great and simple soldier, who had 
enemies only in time of war.*/ 

When ex-President Grant was ending his triumphal 
progress around the world, by a still more triumphal one" 
through the South, he was asked to come to Fernandina, 
the town where Senator Yulee was residing, which, 
altering his plans, he did, remaining several days. There 
his enthusiastic reception by ex-Confederates greatly 
puzzled his black admirers, who were also disappointed 
in his appearance ; as expressed by one of them, in reply 
to the writer, who had asked what he thought of General 

Grant: " Waal, Mr. Yulee he ain't as hearty a 

man as your Pa." 

Now, at the age of fifty-six, having spent twenty-five 
years in a not undistinguished, public career, Senator 
Yulee commenced, and carried on for twenty years more, 
the most strenuous work of his life : that of restoring to 
vitality that part of the railroad system of Florida in 
which he was personally interested. His own holdings in 
it might have been wiped out by those Northern security- 
holders for whom he had fought so loyally, and the larg- 



*Stanton had some three month previously, without effect, 
advised that Senator Yulee be released on parole. 



34 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

est owner was in favor of doing so ; and, besides, leaving 
upon him the burden of one of the railroad's promissory 
notes for $100,000.00— which he had personally endorsed. 
But another one of them, E. N. Dickerson, a gentleman 
born, and of a more dominating character, would not have 
it thus, and Senator Yulee received, not only his former 
share, but even an additional amount, to represent his 
unpaid services in the road's behalf. 

The road from its poverty and the wilderness of the 
country had been from the first the object of jests both 
inimical and friendly, and now its cars, which lay, min- 
gled with its locomotives, in a scrap-heap, had a right of 
way, to run upon, represented by "a streak of rust over 
some rotten sleepers."*..-"'' 

Of the seemingly endless difficulties and discourage- 
ments, with which Senator Yulee fought resolutely 
through two decades, it is not possible to write, but at 
last success came, and the road being sold to some 
English capitalists, he found himself in possession of an 
income which in the "Eighties" was termed "comfor- 
table" but which would scarcely be thought so now. 

At the height of the carpet bag rule in Florida Sena- 
tor Yulee was offered a number of Republican votes, in 
the Legislature, sufficient, when joined with those of the 
Democrats to elect him to the United States Senate, but, 
on account of his business affairs, he felt obliged to 
decline. 

His attitude toward that great problem of the South, 
the negro citizen, may be learned from two resolutions, 
taken from a series, which he offered to .Gov. Hart for 
use in the reconstruction Convention of '67 and '68: 
"Resolved, That we accept as settled principles in the 
policy of our country the perpetual union of the States, 
and the liberty and civil equality of all citizens * * *. 
Resolved, that free government is practical, and 
consistent with civil order and social progress, only in the 
degree thai communities arc advanced in virtue and intel- 
ligence, and that, therefore the education of all the people 
is a proper subject of public concern in all republics." 



*See 1 1 umorous Cuts. 






J®3***^ 



M 




Proposed fi Ian for increasing speed 
on the Flor/det Kail Road- 




Ulap of saleable Lands 

on the Florida- Ha 1 1 Road 



SENATOR DAVID L. YU LEE 37 

But he foresaw equally that, while book learning 
might be quickly given, it would take more than a single 
generation to evoke in them that essential principle 
of popular government : a sense of responsibility; for this 
faculty had been paralyzed by long tutelage as slaves. 
In fact, he realized that the difficulty at the South was 
simply a result of universal suffrage— the theory that 

all men are equally competent to govern ; and with a 
change of color, the same danger confronted the North, 
where, in some communities, the electorate resembled the 
witches' stew in Macbeth. 

In 1880, Senator Yulee went again to reside in Wash- 
ington, drawn by many reasons ; a married daughter 
lived there ; his wife could see more of her own paternal 
family; and he wished his unmarried daughters to see 
something of that society in which their mother had 
passed so many years of her life. There too were many 
of his former friends, and by none was he greeted more 
cordially than by those who were the leading lights in the 
councils of the Republican party, like Fish, of New York, 
Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, Curtin, of Pennsylvania, 
or Hamlin, the Vice-President under Lincoln. 

Four years after moving to Washington, the family 
had only been installed a few months in their new 
home, on Connecticut Avenue (now the Austrian 
Embassy), when the prophetic Spanish proverb: "The 
house is built and the hearse stands before the door" was 
fulfilled by the death of the idolized wife and mother. 

The central motive of his life was gone, and when^ 
nineteen months later, the same shadowy message- JT 
knocked at the door of the bereft man, there was little to 
aid the great physicians in barring his entrance. 

Senator Yulee died in the Clarendon Hotel, New 
York, 10th October, 1886, of a bronchial cold, contracted 
on a Fall River boat, upon which, there being an insuffi- 
ciency of blankets, he had taken part of his own covering 
to put over his grand-child. His heart, too, which was 
functionally unsound, had been weakened by going into 



38 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

the mountains; urged by his children, who did not know, 
of the trouble. 

Side by side, undivided even in death, the two lie in 
the beautiful Georgetown Cemetery, at Washington, 
where the murmuring stream sings, perpetually, its gen- 
tle requiem. 

Owing to the limitations already self-prescribed, the 
writer will attempt no further summary of Senator 
Yulee's character than to make one quotation from the 
first letter written to him, after his imprisonment in Fort 
Pulaski by his devoted wife: "* * I would not have 
you presumptions, but let it console you what the psalmist 
says : 'Blessed is the man who considereth the Poor, the 
Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.' : 

This imperfect sketch has been written with a loving 
hand, and the writer finds himself unable to add that the 
subject of it, who served his state and nation for twenty- 
five years with the best of heart and mind, was a traitor. 
Being neither a profound lawyer, nor eminent statesman, 
as are all the writers north of the Mason and Dixon line, 
he finds himself unable to see that there was absolutely 
no vestige of a right of secession in the Constitution. 

Secession cannot become a purely academic question 
while, on its account, a long line of illustrious statesmen 
are portrayed as fools or knaves, to credulous children, 
or newly veneered citizens, by current historians ; with 
all the resistless power of a machine type-set, stereotyped, 
roller press. Therefore the loyal biographer of Senator 
Yulee must say a few words upon the subject ; in proof 
or extenuation, according to the previously formed 
opinion of the reader. 

It is generally conceded that the Constitution is not 
explicit upon this point, so that we must judge by infer- 
ences drawn from the circumstances of its production, 
and, for this purpose, only such facts shall be given as 
are relevant, uncontested and incontestable. 

The first Federal Union or Confederation having 
proved ineffectual in certain matters, a Convention was 
called For remedying the defects. According to Gouver- 
neur Morris (a Pennsylvania delegate) : "Fisheries or the 
Mississippi (its free navigation. C. W. Y.) are the two 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 39 

great objects of the Union ;" while Gorham (from Mas- 
sachusetts) stated that "the Eastern states had no motive 
to Union but a commercial one ;" (the regulation of inter- 
state and foreign commerce. C. W. Y.) and we may add 
that the large holding of the public debt in certain States, 
and the wish to have it guaranteed by a "strong govern- 
ment," was an additional motive. 

Naturally, we ask : did the States have the right of 
separation, under the old Constitution, which it was now 
proposed to modify? In that instrument they were styled 
the "United States" followed by the name of each 
separate State ; they retained their "Sovereignty, free- 
dom, and independence not expressly delegated ;" and 
Great Britain in her treaty of peace had recognized them 
by name separately and specifically. 

All through the proceedings of this Convention the 
possibility of dissolution, of the existing Union, was 
recognized : as where Hamilton (N. Y.) alludes to "some 
of the consequences of dissolution of the Union;" 
Franklin thinks "our States are on the point of separa- 
tion ;" Elbridge Gerry (Mass.) says, "the present Con- 
federation is dissolving." But a more convincing fact 
is that they did dissolve ; since, as pointed out by Gerry, 
the very mode of forming the new Union was a dissolu- 
tion of the old ; for it provided that when nine of the 
States should have, separately and independently, ratified 
the new Constitution they would then form a new Union, 
leaving the other four in the old. 

Upon the question as to whether or not there should 
be a radical change, the members of the Convention soon 
divided into two hostile camps, one led by Randolph (of 
Virginia) favoring a "national," and the other led by 
Patterson (of New Jersey), favoring a "federal" form 
of government. "Mr. Gouverneur Morris explained the 
distinction between a federal and a national supreme 
government ; the former being a mere compact resting 
on the good faith of the parties, and the latter having a 
complete and compulsive operation."* 

*Gilpin and Elliot Editions of Madison Papers. This im- 
portant declaration is by Bancroft transposed; and 
"Confederate" substituted for "Federal" — probably 
through the carelessness of some assistant. — C. W. Y. 



40 SENATOR DAVID L. YU LEE 

The first report of resolutions, by the Committee of 
the whole, reported by Gorham, was headed by one de- 
claring that "A national Government ought to be 
formed." But the resistance of the smaller States, led by 
New Jersey, threatened to end the Convention ; so that 
the word "National" was stricken out of the first and 
second, or declaratory resolutions, and was used in the 
remaining resolutions only to distinguish between the 
government of the United States and the particular 
States ; it nowhere appears in the Constitution, subse- 
quently adopted; which, moreover, is called "federal" 
in the letter, prepared by the Convention, submitting it, 
for adoption by the States. 

The difficulty, of combining this "sovereign" charac- 
ter of the States, with unity and prompt action by the 
general government, was finally solved by giving, to each 
State, sovereign equality in the Senate, to which body 
of the assembled States, was also confided those peculiar 
powers of sovereignty : making treaties, appointing 
ambassadors, and other officers, in co-operation with the 
President ; who was himself to be chosen by the States, 
individually, through Electors, whom they might appoint 
in any manner they pleased, although the number was to 
vary according to the State's population. This quality 
of the Senate was declared by Wilson* (Perm.) when 
saying: "that the Senate defends the States rights under 
the plan proposed." 

Was the right of separation, possessed under the old 
Constitution, surrendered under the new? Certainly not 
explicitly; and not even impliedly, it seems to the writer, 

In the new Preamble it did not, as in the old, name 
the states individually, but that was because it was 
uncertain, which states would enter the new combination. 
The old phrase "Perpetual Union" was changed to 
"more perfect — not perfect but more perfect — ," and 
one of its objects was to provide For the "common" 51 
defense— the same word as Used in the old. The title 
remained the same: "The United States," and in the body 
of the Constitution the whole nation is alluded to in the 

*One of the Committee which drafted the Constitution. 
^Common; belonging equall} to Cham, Diet. 



SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 41 

plural as "their authority," "Trust under them". More- 
over the general government could not purchase any land, 
for forts, etc., without the consent of the State, in which 
it lay. 

The members of the Convention who w< ited a 
"national" government evidently did not have the, ■ wish. 
Randolph would not sign the new Constitution, nor 
would Gerry, who however said : "A government short 
of a proper national one, is better than one which would 
operate on discontented States" and Hamilton declared 
that, "no man's ideas were- more remote from the plan 
than his own." 

The general impression made is that the new Con- 
stitution was a sort of modus vivendi, on this point; left 
indeterminate because the smaller states would never 
have entered the new Union, if they thought they thereby 
surrendered themselves irrevocably to the larger. Be- 
sides, some members of the Convention thought separa- 
tion in the distant future might possibly be wise ; as 
voiced by Gorham (of Massachusetts), a "national" man 
and one of the committee which framed the Constitution : 
"Can it be supposed that this vast country, including the 
Western territory, will one hundred and fifty years hence 
remain one nation?" 

Finally: Mr. Rawle of Philadelphia, a friend of 
Washington — who presided over the Convention — and 
by whom he was more than once offered the post of At- 
torney-General, says in Rawle on the Constitution 
(1825) : "The secession of a state from the Union de- 
pends on the will of the people of such State." 

With this record, only a very wise man, or a very 
great fool, can, with certainty, pronounce hundreds of 
able lawyers and otherwise upright men, to be traitors. 

To anyone studying, for himself, the different phases 
of this great struggle, the conviction must come, that on 
both sides the prominent men w r ere conspicuous for the 
sincerity of their beliefs, and were totally unconscious 
that they were influenced by environment or irresistible 
economic movement. 



42 SENATOR DAVID L. YULEE 

Had not the Mayflower encountered a southwest 
gale, she would have proceeded to her destination in 
Virginia, and the Puritans would there have, for one 
additional century, remained the strict but just masters 
whicl' they were in Massachusetts. Their homes being 
transposed, the sonorous sentences of Webster would 
have defended States-Rights and Calhoun's close reason- 
ing would have proved the impossibility of any State 
remaining in a Union which it would not obey; Davis 
would have made a fiery abolitionist, and Sumner a 
humane slave holder, indignant at the imputations of the 
other: while history might have been altered, had Grant 
been living in South Carolina. 

All of these notable men, of a notable era, were only 
atoms of the upper or nether millstones, with which the 
Gods are slowly grinding out the destinies of the human 
race. 



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